A Professor's Lesson in David Bowie

Bowie

Posted on January 12, 2016

Will Brooker a British professor is spending a year totally immersing himself in David Bowie's lifestyle and personas, all in the name of research and education.

The teacher of film and cultural studies at Kingston University, is trying to live life as Bowie would have done, starting in the second half of the '60s and progressing chronologically through the various phases he adopted during his career.

He dresses like Bowie, maintains the same odd diet as Bowie, reads what Bowie read, sees the same movies, listens only to music Bowie would've heard and goes to the places Bowie went. He draws the line at replicating Bowie's cocaine addiction of the mid-'70s, settling instead for six packs of energy drinks at regular intervals.

The idea he says, is "to inhabit Bowie’s head space at points in his life and career to understand his work from an original angle, while retaining a critical and objective perspective at the same time."

"Ziggy Stardust" and "Aladdin Sane" periods of Bowie's life has alrealdy been covered. The professor has now entered his "Thin White Duke" phase. Brooker will soon be heading to Berlin, where Bowie recorded a trilogy of albums with Brian Eno in the late '70s.